Idea mining - 5th birthday party?

[veschke]

Hello, all. My little girl is going to be five next week (!). We are going to have a small birthday party for her - a few of her friends from preschool and the grandparents. Life has more than its share of distractions right now - we are in the middle of trying to buy a house just for one - and my brain is just a total blank.

She wants a "Dora Snow Princess" theme, which I think I can work with, but what would be some good ways to amuse three or four five-year-olds for a few hours? A couple of her classmates had *really* elaborate parties, but I'm just not ready to compete on that ground yet. :)

[LaraW]

what about a tea party? DD went to a tea party birthday in Feb and it was fun...she got all dressed up, etc. That might be an idea for you.

They could do dress-up, maybe have a little "meal" with tea party food/drink, that kind of thing.

[___Rhianna___]

For my DD's last birthday (her 6th) we had a small party at home with just a few of her classmates and friends (7 girls total). They had the best time dressing up in boas, tiaras, and "fancy" shoes and dancing and singing--complete with microphones--to Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers.

[LadyWild]

My niece just had a party where all the little girls brought their favorite doll. They all said their favorite part was when they sat around in a circle and each made up a story about their doll.

They also made bead necklaces for their dolls and did a fashion show.

[Terri_A]

OOOOOOhhhhhh...the weeone's 5th birthday party was a tea party, but I do over the top parties. However, I'm sure some of it can be scaled down. Here's what we did -

Invitations - teapot shaped cut outs with a cutesy poem
Favors - all the girls got frilly white gloves when they arrived as well as a plastic tiara that I bought from one of those party catalogs
Decorations - I rented two lower height tables and chairs, tied the chairs with tuile into bows then used white tablecloths topped with more pink tuile as tablecovers. I used my good tea set as well as borrowed floral china from a friend and each girl had a china plate, saucer and tea cup as well as cloth napkin - the girls thought that was a big deal!
Food - I served pink lemonade rather than tea, pbj finger sandys cut into flowers and hearts, sugar cookies cut into teapots...that sort of thing.
Entertainment - We read a story aloud, learned to curtsey ( I know, I know, but the girls had fun! ) and then they played on the playset and trampoline. WAIT!!! I just went and looked at the photos - I bought floppy hats and silk flowers and they decorated hats....too cute!

I have photos on my other computer if you want to see any, let me know!

My favorite parts of this party were that my exhusband donned his tuxedo for me and served the girls!!! Their very own tea butler for the day!!! But also, the girls were so adorable all dressed up and I think they felt like it was a special party because of that.

As a side note, whatever party you do - take this photo - have your daughter hold her hand out in front of her - all five fingers up - it's the one year that's an easy shot and you'll ALWAYS remember which birthday that was!!!

http://images.kodakgallery.com/photos3049/2/66/83/71/3/8/803718366206_0_ALB.jpg

[Terri_A]

I just had another thought - the weeone's 4th birthday was a princesses and knights party. The invitation instructed everyone to dress as a princess or a knight - the favors were plastic tiaras and swords - I rented a castle bouncy thing and they jumped themselves silly. That may have been the easiest.birthday.party.ever!

[Remoulade Sauce]

You could have the mean witch lock the cake in a tower and the kids have to rescue it. Or instead of a cake it could be a Dora doll or the goody bags. In order to get the prize, you could make a map and have 3 stations for them to do things. One could have something to do with ice, since (if I remember the movie) they worry a lot about melting. Or you could do a kiddie pool for the ocean. Dora does sizes in that show too (I think) so you could have a bunch of blocks that they have to put in size order. Or matching spanish words to pictures. Or cutting out snowflakes. Nick Jr also has party ideas and Dora crafts that you can download.
http://www.nickjr.com/party/dora-the-explorer/index.jhtml
Have fun!

[Terri_A]

BTW - the weeone received the BEST party favor a couple of weeks ago. It was a metallic colorful pinwheel and the stick was a small tube with candy in it! It wasn't a lot of candy, so appropriate and the kids loved them. My friend told me she got them at Cost Plus World Market for like $1.75 each!!! She put them all in a vase for a decoration during the party and they were adorable!

[veschke]

You guys are life-savers. :) With getting the house inspected and trying to sort out a ton of other stuff I just have *no* mental space to spare. These are great ideas, and I will definitely check out that link! I have to get my butt in gear here, house or no house, work or no work....

[Jen]

Some of the best activities we've done at birthday parties have been:

-Cookie decorating - just bake simple sugar cookies and provide lots of icing and candies to decorate. This would also work with plain cupcakes. This went over better than I could have imagined!

-Frame decorating - we've made simple 4x6" frames out of sheets of that craft foam, then provided foam stickers and other crafty stuff to stick on, plus foam letters for each child's name (I pulled these out ahead of time and separated them into little bowls so the kids wouldn't have to hunt through the letters!). For our under the sea party I also included seashells; for a snow princess party you could do small cutout snowflakes. I took photos of DD with each child, then masking taped them in the frames (from the back). Also add a couple of small pieces of sticky magnet to the back of each so they can go on the fridge. All of this stuff can come from the dollar store!

-Foam crowns or princess hats from the craft store, decorated sort of like the picture frames.

[veschke]

Thanks for all of the ideas, everyone! The party went fine. The kids *really* liked decorating -- they threw everything I gave them into those poor cookies. :) Next time I will know better what to expect, and won't stress out quite so much! Thanks!